> How much maintenance is required at sea due to attempts at stretching out maintenance normally performed in dock? I don't follow... How does removing the cre

> How much maintenance is required at sea due to attempts at stretching out maintenance normally performed in dock? I don't follow... How does removing the crew make it any more worthwhile to perform maintenance while in port? The issue with trying to handle all maintenance when the ship is "parked" is that the ship only makes money when it is working. By performing routine maintenance while the ship is under way, the owner reduces their opportunity cost pretty substantially (far more than they would save by getting rid of the crew). Additionally, "a few extra days" can represent hundreds of thousands of dollars for a large container ship. The economics of container shipping depends very much on getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible, and then spending as little time at point B as you can, before continuing on to point C, and so on. A ship sitting around in port is an expensive hole in the water.